mike the mountain

Halloween, baby. Definitely my favourite excuse to dress up funny and harass strangers into giving you candy.

Thought this year was going to be a bust… Dreamgirl and I were signed up for some all day fundraiser with my office on Saturday (aka: grownup Halloween party day), and we figured we’d be dead by the evening and not really in the mood to drive an hour into Toronto to hit the big club scene. So be it, we’ll still hand out candy on Tuesday, and maybe just find a local bar to pop into.

Then salvation!

On Friday I got the call that every other member of our team had dropped out due to various illnesses, prior commitments, [insert excuse here]‘s, so we were free! Gee, I bet it’ll be easy to find costumes Friday evening of Halloween party weekend…

No worries, after surfing a few options we hit Hollywood Costumes up in Thornhill. Packed, but still a decent selection left. Chrystal found an AMAZING ghostly-spirit costume, all flowing white lace and gossamer. And just to match, I grabbed a wicked looking LOTR Ringwraith costume, all black, ripped and shredded and making a perfect match to the angel beside me.

If only it was that easy.

We figure we’re set for Saturday, have to pick up a couple extra accessories during the day, and then head to town for the big club crawl. I snagged us the last couple tickets for a great sounding event through Party Crawls. Should be a blast. Of course as soon as we get home we rip open our costume bags to try them on… Chrystal looks awesome, just needs some white face paint, stockings, etc.. I, on the other hand, pull on a black stocking with couple strips of mesh. It looks like crap. We try to twist and adjust it, stare at the pic on the bag, eventually we had to accept it. Half the costume was missing. All I had was the plain black piece that is to be worn underneath the big scary gothic cloak and hood. Useless.

Now I’m mad. Not only do I not have a costume, but I’m going to have to try and return the one I did buy after the big party weekend… I’m sure no one has ever tried to run that scam before. “Uhh, yeah, I know it looks like I wore it, and it smells like beer, but seriously it didn’t, uh, fit. Yeah. Can I have my money back?”

Oh yeah, and I still need to find something to wear for Saturday night.

No problem. Hit teh interwebs, grab a list of every costume shop in 50K, and first thing Saturday morning (relative concept when you get up at 5:30am all week), we’re on the road. Not a ton left. Big surprise. Finally get to one of the coolest costume shops I’ve ever seen: Seams Like Magic, in Waterloo. And there it is. Sitting right at eye level (for me anyways), front of the rack. Calling to me. The perfect costume.

Two words.

Zombie.

Cowboy.

Hell yeah! Now I’m REALLY excited. Grabbed a few accessories (bandito ‘stache, grey hairspray, “Severe Wound” makeup, bullet belt), headed over to Winners to grab a suitably cowboyish shirt that I wouldn’t feel too bad about ruining, stopped by a mall to grab some white fishnets and white Crocs for Dreamgirl’s costume, and we are ready to rock.

The party started out really well, awesome first bar, great mix of crowd, some amazing costumes (we took 3rd place, behind two guys dressed as Duff Beer bottles and a very uncomfortable looking “Horse From Brokeback Mountain”!). Unfortunately, as the night went on it became very apparent that this was not our scene. Each bar we went to got younger and younger, and neither of us really enjoyed being stuffed into an overcrowded bar full of drunk 19 year olds. Been there, done that, we were hoping for something a little more mellow. After almost getting in fights at two different clubs (someone tried to get “physical” with my Dreamgirl, so I got “physical” with him), we called it a night.

Even though it didn’t end on the best note, overall I still had a fun time. If you are in the mood to really rip it up and go crazy, I definitely recommend Party Crawls. Great group of guys, well organized, obviously having a ton of fun. Thanks again Mike!

Now where’s my candy…

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